


it's a great big atlas (i love you like the stars above)

by mooosicaldreamz



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Road Trip, F/F, Sort Of, featuring cracker barrel mad libs and an applebee's tablet, the best kind of road trip there is, theoretically it is a road trip au, there's a car a road and two girls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-26 20:56:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12066837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mooosicaldreamz/pseuds/mooosicaldreamz
Summary: Alex gets them the car. It’s a beat-down SUV, an ugly gold-tan color, and when Kara pops the passenger side door open, it squeaks so loudly Lena winces. She’s been wincing a lot lately; it’s a behavior that makes sense, considering her brother’s broken out of prison and has already tried to kill both of them twice. Hence the car. Hence the cash Alex shoves into Kara’s hands, along with a road map and a pained expression.(or, the Road Trip / On the Run AU)





	it's a great big atlas (i love you like the stars above)

**Author's Note:**

> first off, thank you to my baeta eternal [lynnearlington](http://archiveofourown.org/users/lynnearlington/pseuds/lynnearlington) for putting up with me asking her if every single section of this was okay. second, the title comes from two (2) songs: "It's a Trip!" by Joywave and "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits. i hope y'all enjoy.

****Alex gets them the car. It’s a beat-down SUV, an ugly gold-tan color, and when Kara pops the passenger side door open, it squeaks so loudly Lena winces. She’s been wincing a lot lately; it’s a behavior that makes sense, considering her brother’s broken out of prison and has already tried to kill both of them twice. Hence the car. Hence the cash Alex shoves into Kara’s hands, along with a road map and a pained expression.

She takes them out to some parking lot in the suburbs, tells them the DEO is compromised, that Lex probably knows who Kara is, that they need to lay low until they get Lex in custody. She takes their phones and hands Lena the keys, tells Kara not to use her powers unless it’s necessary. That Lex is watching the skies for any Supers.

“You have to get out of here,” Alex says. “Both of you.” 

And so they go.

-

“Do you want anything?” Kara asks. Lena has been driving since they left at around nine this morning, sunglasses on her face. She still looks a little like _Lena Luthor,_ but Kara hasn’t had the heart to point it out to her. Kara’s barely said anything as they’ve made their way inland, through the desert. She isn’t sure what there is to say.

_Sorry your brother is a mass-murdering maniac who wants both of us dead._

_Sorry I didn’t tell you I was Supergirl and that you found out this way._

_Sorry about breaking your apartment’s windows when I threw his goons outside._

Lena shakes her head no, looking around the gas station in a way that’s meant to seem casual. But Kara can hear Lena’s heartbeat getting more anxious the more she looks around, and she wants to - say something helpful. But she can think of nothing. So she heads inside.

She grabs a little cooler first, then grabs waters and various snacks that catch her eye as she makes her way through the gas station. When she passes a rack of horrifying teal hats that read _Arizona_ on them, she grabs two of them. She tries to look like a bored tourist, but the teenager behind the counter doesn’t even look up when Kara hesitantly adds ice onto her purchase. Lena’s heartbeat is getting faster and faster, but Kara knows there’s nothing happening out in the dead-end gas station’s lot.

When she bounds out the door carrying about four bags of stuff, Lena’s heartbeat lays off the littlest bit.

-

They decide to buckle down for the night at a motel with a flickering light in a tiny town just on the border between Arizona and New Mexico. It’s not that they decide, really - Kara asks if they should, and Lena pulls over at the next hotel they see.

“I need a room for the night,” Kara says, tugging at the hat on her head and trying to look bored, disaffected. The man behind the desk grins, and spits chewing tobacco into the mug before him.

“Any particular room number? People got lucky ones, you know,” he says. Kara shrugs, listening again as Lena’s heartbeat is speeding away.

“Anything’s fine,” she says. The man shrugs back, reaches blindly behind him and grabs a random key off the rack. Most of them are still there, and that brings some measure of comfort to her. Before he drops it into her hand, he grins again.

“You got any traveling companions? You good with a Queen?”

Kara blinks, listening to the steady crescendo of Lena’s heartbeat.

“Give me two doubles,” Kara says.

-

“Do you want me to get us any food?” Kara asks, watching as Lena stands at the base of one of the double beds. “I think there’s a Pancake House or something a mile down the road.”

Lena shakes her head again. So Kara sighs, pulls the duffel Alex had thrown in their trunk off her shoulder and drops it on her own bed. When she zips it open, it’s packed with a mass of Kara’s lazy clothes - some sweatpants and t-shirts and one of them is Alex’s, somehow, mixed in and still smelling like her sister.

Her eyes well up with tears all of a sudden, as she drops it back into the bag and sits down on the bed, staring at the stained carpet of their room, listening to the sounds of the desert and the three other occupants of the motel and Lena’s heartbeat, thudding along.

“You must be starving,” Lena says. Her voice cracks a little, and she crosses her arms as she stares at some point near Kara. Her hair is in disarray, disrupted by the hat Kara had offered to her when she clambered back into the car at the gas station. She looks - well, she looks like she had after Jack. “This explains why you can eat so much.”

“Lena - ”

“I’m going to shower,” Lena says. And then she’s into the bathroom. 

Kara sighs, standing up and grabbing for a set of clothes that seem like they’d fit Lena and dropping them on the bathroom counter. She changes too, then, listening carefully for any indication out in the wilderness - a sign, from Alex, from anyone. But there’s nothing, just the quiet sounds of Lena crying in the shower.

So she lies in bed and waits until Lena is in bed too, and she doesn’t sleep, and neither does Lena.

-

“I got some donuts and coffee,” Kara says, dropping the bag on the unstable table in their room. Lena, who’s sitting up in bed and watching the news, doesn’t look to Kara or the promise of food. So Kara comes closer, dropping onto her bed and setting Lena’s coffee on the bed side table. She had already drank hers, after she had eaten her own whole full bag of donuts.

“More news from National City this morning, where Lex Luthor has focused a series of attacks on his former company and on various buildings throughout the city,” the news anchor says. “Sources on the ground indicate he’s trying to locate his sister, Lena Luthor, who has been missing since Wednesday night. Questions as to the whereabouts of Supergirl have also risen; however, Superman and Guardian, National City’s vigilante, have been working overtime to prevent casualties.”

It cuts to blurry camera footage of James pulling people out of a fiery building, to Kal tackling a series of men in black tactical gear to the ground.

“Lex Luthor’s current whereabouts are unknown. This morning, President Marsdin announced that a lockdown would be enforced on the city’s borders, in an effort to narrow the search area for him and his supporters. She also urged citizens to report the Homeland Security Terrorist Watch Hotline if they had any information on his location. We will break into today’s programming if breaking news occurs.”

-

 _One moment, Kara is eating a slice of pizza and listening to Lena hum along to the_ Game of Thrones _theme, and the next, the door to Lena’s apartment is being thrown open by three men with guns._  

_She stands up, dropping her slice on the ground, and Lena scrambles to tug at her arm - but the men are advancing quickly._

_“We just want Luthor,” one of them says, his face hidden behind a dark mask. Kara can see beyond it, of course, can see right through him. “No need for any violence tonight, ladies.”_

_Kara’s phone is ringing across the room, her Supergirl phone, and she listens to Lena’s heartbeat ratcheting higher as one of the men raises his gun at them - and she makes a decision._

_She throws one of them into the kitchen, where he falls unconscious against the sink, his body crumpled unnaturally. The other two start yelling, and all of a sudden, a vague green glow is coming up in one man’s gloves, and Kara feels herself getting weaker, can hear Lena gasping - and Kara grabs him by the collar of his tactical vest and tosses him out the window, onto Lena’s balcony._

_The last man stands there dumbly, his gun hanging halfway out of his hand, and he starts to say something -_ “You’re - ” - _when Kara punches him in the face, and he drops to the ground, knocked out. When she turns to look at Lena, her eyes are rotating between the three men, and Kara._

_“We have to go,” Kara says, reaching for Lena and wincing when Lena shakes her head, her gaze still moving. “Lena, please.”_

_-_

She offers to drive, and Lena falls asleep in the passenger seat within twenty minutes of them being on the road. Kara doesn’t have definitive plans on where she should be going - Alex had just told them to go, that it was no longer safe for either of them. So she drives east towards Santa Fe and onwards north into Colorado. She’s seen the landscape before, flown over it out of boredom, but not up close like this.

The only radio station she can seem to get ahold of that isn’t news is a classic rock station, and she doesn’t want to wake Lena up, so she drives in silence for miles and miles.

Kara notices the black SUV about two hours in. On such a lonely patch of road, it makes sense that cars would group up together over time, but the SUV is dogged. When Kara switches lanes, they follow, and when Kara zooms her hearing in on them, they’ve got a radio rigged up, a voice talking to them. It has the same lilting, musical tone as Lena’s voice, with just a tinge of mania, and Kara sighs.

She pulls off at a rest stop and reaches over for Lena, shaking her awake gently.

“We’re being followed,” Kara says, when Lena blinks awake, looking even more tired than she had when she climbed into the car. Lena nods, and Kara feels her heart speed up as she looks around at the unfamiliar surroundings.

“What are we going to do?” Lena asks. Kara sighs, watching as the SUV pulls up nearby and two men climb out. They have guns tucked into the waistbands of their pants, and they chatter at each other as they stumble towards the rest stop.

“I’m going to go in,” Kara says, popping the door open. Lena scrambles out of the car afterward.

“What if they have Kryptonite?” Lena asks, grabbing for Kara’s arm before she makes it up onto the sidewalk.

“Unless it’s encased in lead, they don’t,” Kara says. Lena’s hand on her arm is warm and it calms Kara, a tiny bit. She’s felt blurry, not quite in place, since Wednesday night, since picking Lena up in her arms and flying her to the DEO. But Lena either being - too scared, or not as scared, depending on the perspective - and touching her, was helpful. It was something.

Lena stares up at her, clearly thinking something through, her dark hair pulled into a loose ponytail under the garish Arizona hat.

“Go search the car,” Kara says. “If you can, reprogram the GPS so it says they’re in Mexico or something. And grab any supplies we could need.”

-

They stop at a Cracker Barrel so Kara can wash the blood off her hands.

When she comes out of the bathroom, Lena is waiting in the gift shop, looking through a stand of audiobooks and tapping her hand incessantly against her jaw as she seems to think of something much further away.

“Hey,” Kara says. “Do I look less like I beat some guys up in a rest stop bathroom?”

“Especially with the hat,” Lena says, and a small crook of a smile blooms on her face that Kara can’t help but respond to. Her new hat - a sparkly cowboy number that she had purchased just minutes before running into the bathroom - is excessively bad as a fashion choice.

“You want some food?” Kara asks. Lena nods slowly, dropping her hand from her jaw and bumping into Kara the smallest amount as they head over to the hostess desk.

-

“They’re okay, right?” Lena asks, with a mouthful of steak. “The guys?”

Kara nods, her fingers playing with the little triangle game as she chews on her pancakes. Lena is looking at her curiously, like she’s looking at someone else entirely, and it’s making her uncomfortable.

“Yeah,” Kara says. “I accidentally broke one of their legs, I think, though.”

“Accidentally,” Lena says. Her eyes are wide. “Do we even have a measurement for what you can lift?”

“I was upset,” Kara mutters. “I try not to hurt people like that.”

“Well, it is a pretty upsetting situation, getting your secret identity found out by your friend’s evil brother and having to go on the run,” Lena says. Kara wins the triangle game again, and promptly begins resetting the board.

“Sure,” Kara says, and she doesn’t bother correcting Lena on why she was angry. And Lena doesn’t say anything else for the rest of their lunch.

-

They make it to just outside Denver when they stop off at another motel. This time, Lena communicates enough that Kara picks up a dinner from some fast food place a block or two away. They eat in relative silence, the news playing over the television.

“Maxwell Lord released a statement today encouraging both Supergirl and Lena Luthor to save National City by stepping forward. He made his remarks after Lex Luthor bombed the children’s hospital named after his own family’s foundation, claiming that only more lives would be lost unless Supergirl, or his sister, came out of hiding. In response, Superman made his own statement, saying that his cousin and Miss Luthor are operating in the interest of theirs and National City’s safety.”

“What a mess,” Kara says, flopping onto the bed and staring up at the ceiling. Lena sighs.

“I should go back,” Lena says. Kara picks up her head from the scratchy pillow and looks over at her. She’s tensed, sitting up with her arms crossed. Lena’s a year younger than her, and yet, somehow, she looks so much older at this moment.  
“You shouldn’t,” Kara says. Lena doesn’t look at her. 

“Would you stop me?” Lena asks. Kara sighs, dropping her head back down on the pillow and looking straight up through the ceiling, at the mom and son lounging in their own room. 

“I’d go with you,” Kara says. Lena does turn and look at her then.

“He’d kill you. We don’t know if he wants to kill me,” Lena says.

“He could try to kill me,” Kara says, shrugging. “And I’m not interested in playing games with your life. We don’t know what he might do to you.”

“You play games with your life every day, don’t you?” Lena asks, and she says it with anger, all of a sudden, and so Kara picks up her head again to look over at the other bed. Lena’s even more tense. “I’ve saved your life more than once. I’ve watched you on television, throwing yourself into every fight like it doesn’t matter if you come out of it or not.”

“I’ve saved yours more than once, too,” Kara says, narrowing her eyes. “You matter, Lena. I’m not going to let you go offer yourself up for slaughter.”

“He won’t stop until he’s found me,” Lena argues back. “People are dying, Kara. Surely they matter.”

“Of course they matter,” Kara says. “But so do you.”

“I don’t need Supergirl as a bodyguard,” Lena says. “I could go into hiding on my own. You could be out there, saving people.”

“It’s not about me being - Lena. I care about you, and I told you that I would protect you,” Kara says, snapping back at the anger Lena’s throwing her face. “I’m not doing this out of a sense of duty or whatever."

“Don’t you feel a duty to National City? Isn’t that what being a superhero is all about? You’re useless out here protecting me,” Lena says, her fingers forming quotation marks around _protecting,_ as though Kara hadn’t just broken a man’s leg in an effort to protect Lena.

And even though it’s thrilling, a little, to see Lena coming back to herself a little - even if she’s angry, even if this is their first substantive conversation since that night - Kara still feels her blood run cold as a thought occurs to her.

  
“Are you trying to get rid of me, or do you actually believe that?” Kara asks. Lena blinks, then shakes her head, looking back to the television as it moves on to international news. 

She doesn’t say anything else, and the silence is enough of an answer that Kara can’t sleep, again.

- 

Kara hears them coming before they even get to the door. They aren’t subtle; their car has a small rattle to it that she hears when they pull off the highway. They murmur at each other as they trot up to the door: _boss says to be careful with the blonde, don’t hurt his sister or else._ So Kara sits up, hops out of bed and watches as their figures come closer.

She opens it when they knock, and all of a sudden, she’s getting blown backwards.

She hits the television and breaks the stand it’s on, and the men laugh, the weapon in their hands crackling with energy that _hurts,_ rippling through her muscles. She shakes it off nearly as soon as it happens, but the men are already halfway to Lena’s bed. 

Lena’s awake, too, her heartbeat rocketing to something approaching what’s normal for vigorous exercise. Kara climbs out of the rubble of the entertainment center just in time for the one with the alien gun to aim it at her again, while the other one grabs ahold of Lena by the forearm and begins pulling her from the bed.

  
“Hello, little Luthor,” the man says, his voice lecherous and cruel, and it makes Kara feel so _angry,_ and the one with the gun is making a noise of fear as she feels her vision cloud over with the orange of her heat vision.  

“Dude,” he starts to say, his weapon charging up again, but Kara interrupts it by reaching out and ripping it from his hands. It shatters from where it hits the ground, and then she’s got him by the sweatshirt he’s wearing, her hand wrapped in his collar as she lifts him up. He dangles there as she considers what to do.

“Put him down,” the other man says. When Kara’s eyes flicker over to him, he’s got a knife at Lena’s neck.

She drops him immediately, and he hits the side of the bed hard enough that he bounces straight over to the other one, groaning. The other man’s smirk wouldn’t be visible to anyone else, but it grates Kara’s nerves as he advances suddenly, the knife pressing into Lena’s neck.

“I’m pretty sure your boss told you to not hurt his sister,” Kara says, backing up as he advances.

“Boss didn’t tell us that Supergirl was his sister’s little guard dog, either,” the man says. Lena’s face is growing a strange shade of guarded, and Kara’s eyes watch as she grabs for something from their bag, tossed on the corner of Kara’s bed. When she sees what it is, she can’t help but smile.

“I’m not in need of a guard dog,” Lena says. And then she pulls the taser from the bag and jams it into the neck of the man holding onto her.

He hits the ground quickly, his body shaking. For a moment, there’s just the sound of the two of them groaning, lying there amongst the mess they’ve made of their room. Then, Lena’s sighing, dropping the taser into their duffel and crossing the room to grab their little plastic bag of toiletries, and she’s out the door without a word.

Kara follows after her, melting the lock with her heat vision and listening as the men continue to just groan. And then they’re back in the car, on the road, heading straight west as the stars rotate all around them.

-

They drive all through the night and into the morning.

“It wasn’t because you’re - it’s not about you being a Luthor,” Kara says, suddenly, glancing over at Lena. She’s reclined the seat back considerably, and is fiddling with a little mind puzzle she had picked out at the Cracker Barrel two days ago. 

Lena stares back at her.

“I assume that’s what you think,” Kara says. “That I didn’t tell you about - me being - you know because you’re a - you know. But it wasn’t about that.”

“I feel like the situation we’re in makes it pretty clear why I would think that,” Lena says, and all of a sudden, she looks angry and bitter all over again.

“I trust you, Lena,” Kara whispers. “You’re my best friend, and I - I - well, so much of my life is about being Super - you know. That’s what people look at me and see, and I just wanted to be Kara, just Kara to someone. It was selfish. There were so many times where I could have told you and I didn’t because I was selfish.”

“I can understand that,” Lena says, finally, after a full thirty seconds of silence where the world seeps in on Kara - sounds from outside, from the mountains on one side and plains on the other. “I just feel like I don’t know you. I mean, you threw a man through my window.”

  
“I’m still me,” Kara says, even quieter than before.

“What’s your name?” Lena asks, and Kara - Kara tries to shrug away the insistent tightness in her shoulders and look out on on the road before sighing.

“Kara Zor-El.”

-

_“Hello,” Kara says, just after she hits the lights with her heat vision. The men in the rest stop don’t look surprised, and one of them even props up his hands in something like surrender._

_“Hey, we don’t know who you are, but just hand over the Luthor bitch,” he says. “We’ve got cash.”_

_It’s hard to describe the red hot feeling that takes over her when she hears his words - that these men care so little for Lena’s life that they’d expect Kara to hand her over for money. But she snaps his femur in half when she punches him there, and then she takes the money._  

_-_

“I can’t believe you got all this Super shit on display when the girlie one is fucking off doing God knows what while her city falls apart,” a man says. His anger is directed at the clerk of the gas station, and Kara can’t help but flinch.

“They just tell me where to put stuff,” the old woman says in response. She looks like the sort of person who hears a thousand complaints a day and lets it roll right off of her.

Kara grabs a few handfuls of trail mix, waiting for Lena to come back out of the restroom. The man at the counter picks up the lighter - branded with her family’s crest - and turns it over in his hand, scoffing.

“Well, you should tell them they can shove this up their ass,” he says. “So much for truth, justice, and the American way. At least those people in National City expected the Luthor woman to abandon them. But Supergirl? Come on.”

“Are you gonna pick out your pornos or what?” the woman asks, and Kara can’t help but laugh a little, turning her head to the side just as Lena comes out of the restroom, looking tired and face drawn. Her eyes jump from Kara’s smile to what’s happening over at the counter.

“Do we have enough for some coffee?” Lena asks.

“We’ve got tons,” Kara says, reaching into her pocket and feeling the wad of money she had lifted off the rest stop hit men. 

“Do you need any?” Lena asks. Kara follows her towards the coffee bar, messy with discarded stir sticks and opened sugar packets.

“It doesn’t - really do anything for me,” Kara says, shrugging when Lena glances over at her.

“Right,” Lena says. “Kara Zor-El.”

Kara makes sure the man from before is out the door before they step up to the counter.

_-_

“Does alcohol affect you?” Lena asks. She’s sitting up this time, eating a peanut at a time from the trail mix Kara had purchased so much of just for her. “Is it like - a dosage thing? Do you just need _more_ alcohol to feel it?”

Kara sighs, tilts her neck from side to side, watching the road. A car in front of them is packed with a huge family, and when Kara focuses in on them, they’re listening to a loud pop song. She still can’t get the radio to tune to anything other than rock.

“I guess,” Kara says. “It’s - definitely beyond the limit of a human. Back home there’s a bar we - I go to, that serves alien liquor.”

“There are alien bars in National City?” Lena asks, her head tipping to the side as she plops another peanut in her mouth.

“At least one,” Kara says. “It’s nice to not feel like a - _thing._ A lot of the people who go there don’t look so - human.”

“How is your physiology different than humans? Do you have a third liver or something?” Lena asks.

Kara blinks, the lines on the road blurring a little in front of hers. She doesn’t know if it’s exhaustion, irritation, or what - but she blinks away the moisture gathering in her eyes.

“We’re the same,” Kara says. “Same everything.”

“Interesting. I wonder how that happened.”

Kara hums, and she keeps on driving.

- 

Lena convinces her to stop at around four, citing a need for real food and a drink. So they drop their duffel, minus a taser, at their new hotel, and head to the Applebee’s across the street. Lena asks for a whiskey and Kara asks for a sampler platter, and she tries to focus on one thing at a time - the strange color of Lena’s eyes for one moment, the granular texture of the tabletop the next.

“I’d fuck her,” a voice says, from nowhere, and Kara has to pull herself from counting the fake wood grains to zero in on it. It’s a man at the bar, talking to the bartender, sending not-so-surreptitious looks in their direction. Lena is fiddling with the tablet with games on their table, not paying any attention at all.

“Yeah, dude, keep dreaming,” the bartender responds. “Five bucks they’re fucking each other.” 

“Oh, whatever, man, stop watching so much Skin-a-max,” the man responds. “Not every pair of hot chicks want to bang each other.”

Kara tries to refocus, turning her eyes back to Lena’s fingers, tapping away at the device.

“Can you order me some chicken fingers with that?” Kara asks, tilting her head sideways and glancing at the screen. Lena laughs, a little, but when Kara manages to focus on what’s in front of her eyes, she’s looking at something else entirely. It’s lines and lines of code, and Lena is carefully typing away. 

“What are you doing?” Kara asks. She’s tired enough that she can’t parse through whatever it is Lena’s doing.

“I’m trying to work my way through the firewalls around my brother’s communication network,” Lena says, and she smiles impishly, the way she does right before she steals one of Kara’s French fries or before she’s about to mention she’s revolutionized some technology. “Just surveying.” 

“Don’t you think that’s a little dangerous?” Kara asks, after a moment of silence. “What if he can like - hack you back?”

“Please,” Lena says. She actually rolls her eyes at Kara when she does, her hat tipping sideways on her head. “He’s not going to be expecting surveillance from an Applebee’s in Kansas.”

“Lena - ” 

“Kara, as much as I’m enjoying eating Applebee’s in Kansas and going on a road trip in an old SUV with you, I’m not going to just sit on my hands and wait for something to happen,” Lena says. “The more of his idiot followers we have to take out, the sooner he’s going to figure out where we are and come hurt you and do God knows what to me.” 

She’s so tired, all of a sudden, looking into Lena’s eyes and watching them heat up in anger. She misses her friends, and Alex, and National City, and she hates this constant feeling of being on high alert. And she misses, more than anything, Lena looking at her like a friend, and not a confusing, dumb thing. 

“Okay,” Kara says. “Fine. But can you just - talk to me before you do stuff like this? We’re in this together.”

“Like you’ve told me things?” Lena asks, and her eyes on the screen, but Kara winces like Lena’s looking at her anyways.

“I don’t owe my identity to anyone,” Kara snaps. Lena jolts. “I’m going for a walk. When you’re done doing - whatever, can you get me some chicken tenders?”

_-_

She sits in their hotel room and stares absently at and through the wall. She isn’t really aware of how long she does it; but she listens to Lena’s heartbeat to keep an eye on her and lets her mind go blank. She doesn’t think about Alex or the DEO, or the citizens of National City, and she doesn’t think about the crying boy a couple rooms over, or the sounds of wheat moving in the wind on the plains, or about the tree caving in someone’s house a couple miles away.

Eventually, Lena comes back, carrying a mass of takeout bags.

“You didn’t come back,” Lena says. Kara sighs, blinking and focusing on the stained carpet.

“I was listening for you,” Kara says. “Sorry.”

Lena sets the takeout on the table, and then she drops down next to Kara on the bed, and Kara can feel the warmth of her eyes watching her.

“No, I’m sorry,” Lena says, and she reaches out to grab Kara’s hand, slipping their fingers together. It’s warm and calming, and Kara closes her eyes, focusing on Lena - just Lena, nothing else. “You were right. I don’t - know what it’s been like for you, being what you are. But I know what it’s been like to be me, having been trotted out in front of the press since I was four, people always wanting to know - who I am, what I’m like, _who_ I like. People always looking at me like I’m just my name.”

Kara blinks open her eyes, looking down at her and Lena’s joined hands, trying very suddenly not to cry.

“I’m sorry, Kara,” Lena says. “You don’t owe your identity to me or anyone else. I also brought you four orders of chicken tenders.”

Kara starts crying then, of course.

Lena clearly doesn’t know what to do with this situation. She grips tighter at Kara’s fingers, and she shuffles closer on the bed somehow. She doesn’t say anything. Kara finds herself curling inward, turning a little bit to duck her head into Lena’s shoulder, into the atrociously pink Colorado sweatshirt she had picked out yesterday.

And Lena lets her, wrapping her arm around Kara’s shoulder and pulling her in. It’s the most Kara’s cried since just after the Daxamite invasion, nearly two months ago, and Lena - just lets her cry. By the time she’s done, she’s nearly passed out - two days of no sleep and fear and anger getting drawn out of her in a short burst.

“I know,” Lena says, so softly, her mouth up against the top of Kara’s head. “Chicken tenders are _that_ amazing.”

“Shut up,” Kara mutters, and Lena laughs.

_-_

“Your hat is awful,” Lena says. Kara’s just woken up from a nap in the car, and Lena’s apparently got no qualms about playing the only radio station they can find. A soft churning of classic rock accompanies the sound of the tires on the road. “Does nothing for your jawline.”

“ _Your_ hat is awful,” Kara returns, glaring over at Lena and her bright green hat. “If only you weren’t a fugitive. I’d totally make sure this ended up on Twitter.”

“And here I thought we were friends,” Lena says, and Kara, for the first time since two nights ago, laughs.

-

“Did you ever go on road trips when you were younger?” Lena asks. She’s tapping along to the beat of the song playing, and she’s pushed up the driver’s seat at least a foot further than Kara had it. “Or I guess, when you came to the Danvers.”

“I don’t really love being in cars, actually,” Kara says. She’s playing one of the games on the tablet Lena apparently stole from Applebee’s, and she’s very close to beating the high score Lena set this morning at breakfast. “When I was - younger, though. My dad would take me on trips to nearby planets.”

Lena blinks for a second, before she turns and glances at Kara, a smile playing across her face. The bright sun of the Kansas plains shines on her stupid hat and dark hair, and it’s gorgeous, as always.

“You know, I’m usually the most impressive person in a room,” Lena says. “You’ve been to other planets.”

“You’re still much more impressive than me,” Kara says, shrugging. “You make neon look good, somehow.”

“You wear a short skirt and a skintight outfit at your night job,” Lena says. “I think if we’re comparing looks, you’re winning. Again.”

“Stop trying to fluster me with compliments,” Kara says. “I’ve almost got your score beat.”

“You’re beautiful, Kara,” Lena says, and she’s laughing now. “And those legs!”

Kara messes up the game, of course.

-

“Do you think we threw him off the trail?” Kara asks. She’s laid across the back seat of the SUV, while Lena has reclined back the driver’s seat far enough that she’s lying down as well. They’re parked at a rest stop somewhere near Oklahoma City, and this time, Lena’s on the tablet, going through some sort of weird tech thing that she hasn’t bothered to explain to Kara.

“I’m not sure,” Lena says. “I’ve almost found a way into his communications network. And if we can get into that, maybe we can find out where he’s hiding.”

“I don’t know how you can always find the most dangerous option,” Kara mutters. “Remember how you almost got blown up in your first week in National City? Twice? Maybe that happens for a reason." 

Lena makes an affronted noise, throwing her hand out to the side and hitting Kara on the kneecap, then winces.

“Yes, Supergirl, come to my gala as a backup plan just in case my insane science project doesn’t work,” Kara says, lowering her voice and tossing a glare Lena’s way. “Sure, Kara, let me stay on the phone with you while men are throwing me off my roof. Oh, let’s definitely storm our way out of a spaceship as if Supergirl isn’t going to try to rescue us.”

“I don’t sound like that,” Lena says, and she hits Kara on the knee again, not pulling her eyes off the tablet. Her hand rests on Kara’s kneecap, over the acid wash jeans they had picked up at a thrift store in the last town over. 

“Don’t worry, it’s totally okay that my brother escaped from prison and tried to kill me yesterday, it’s fine if we eat Italian and watch _Game of Thrones,_ ” Kara says, lowering her tone even more. “No, Supergirl, I don’t need to be taken under protective custody.”

“I’m in!” Lena says, jolting up a little from her position and then rolling sideways, holding out the tablet so Kara can see it. She’s not sure what exactly she’s meant to be seeing. It still looks like code to her.

“You’re such a nerd,” Kara says, knocking her head back against the car door. “ _I’m in._ Who says that?”

“This is all in some kind of code,” Lena says, still ignoring Kara. “I’m going to have to spend time breaking it.”

“Maybe I’ll find someone to punch in the meantime,” Kara says.

-

They splurge and stay at a hotel with a bar and a pool and Kara definitely whispers an apology when she melts the cameras in the lobby with a well-placed burst of heat vision. Lena orders room service and Kara eats three quarters of it and they climb into Kara’s bed and watch the news together while Lena uses the hotel’s notepad to decrypt Lex’s messages with his goons.

  
“At the top of the hour is the continuing siege of National City by Lex Luthor. Today, Luthor bombed the CatCo Worldwide Media building in another attempt to draw his sister from hiding. Superman, along with Guardian and military agents, were on the scene just after the bomb went off. Fourteen are in critical condition, while a total of thirty-two more had life-threatening injuries. Supergirl, as well as Lena Luthor, has been missing since Wednesday night, when she allegedly stopped an attack at Miss Luthor’s apartment building. Cat Grant released a statement today on the attack.”

The news cuts to a recorded statement of Cat, who is sitting behind a desk that Kara’s pretty sure is in the DEO.

“Lex Luthor is, unequivocally, a coward. His attack on my company today was fueled by his delusions and his hatred, and we will not stand for it. I urge the citizens of National City to not live in fear. We do not need Supergirl to be brave for us; we can be brave for ourselves.”

Kara changes the channel to Jeopardy then, trying to stop the worry working its way through her system. One of Lena’s hands lands on her thigh, then, and Kara grabs ahold of it.

“She wouldn’t have made that statement if I needed to go back,” Kara says. Lena hums in acknowledgment, then sets the tablet down.

“Why did you become Supergirl?” Lena asks. 

Kara sighs, lacing her fingers together with Lena’s while she tries to piece together her thoughts after the sudden panic she’s just been through.

  
“Well, you know about the plane crash, right?” Kara asks, and when Lena nods, she continues on. “Alex was on the plane. I don’t - know if I would have done anything if she wasn’t.”

“Before Lex went and - tried to kill your cousin, he told me he was doing all of it for me,” Lena says. “I’m glad you’re doing something good with the powers you have.”

Kara sighs, looking from their hands to the television and back again.

“Do you want to get a drink?” Kara asks.

-

Three hours later, and Kara is supporting Lena over to the elevator bay. She smells like whiskey and she’s rambling about polyatomic anions and the portal and she’s said _sorry_ about thirty times. Kara’s unsure how this happened; one moment she and Lena were tucked away in a dark corner of their hotel’s bar, which was mostly populated by old men and very young women - and the next, Lena had ordered her fifth drink and her heartbeat was off the charts.

“Lena, please stop apologizing,” Kara says, softly, and Lena tilts her head backward from where it’s tucked into Kara’s shoulder, her eyes wide and that mysterious grey-blue-green and now filling up with tears, oh Rao -

“I can’t have you hate me,” Lena whispers. Kara jams at the button for the elevator, casting her eyes around the lobby and making sure no one is watching them. “You can’t hate me. It’s not allowed.”  


“I don’t even know why I would hate you,” Kara says, letting Lena’s hands wrap around her waist in what would be a tight hug on anyone else. She returns the favor, draping her arms around Lena’s shoulders and trying to get her to not cry. 

“I could start listing,” Lena says. Kara shuffles her backwards, mostly succeeding in getting her into the elevator by lifting her off the ground and into the small space. Lena doesn’t let go, just tucks herself into Kara’s body. Kara can hear her stuttering breaths, the wild heartbeat, and she sighs, rubbing at the back of Lena’s neck.

“There’s no list,” Kara says. “I don’t hate you. You’re my best friend.”

“I almost married your boyfriend and then killed him,” Lena says. It’s absurd enough that Kara snorts, rubbing gently at Lena’s hairline on the back of her neck. Alex always did it to calm her down when she was younger; maybe it worked on drunk people?

“The first part was not your fault, and you didn’t kill him,” Kara says. “You did what was right.”

“My brother almost killed your cousin,” Lena says. “He almost killed you.”

Kara hums, and Lena makes a soft noise, digging her head into the crook of Kara’s neck just as the elevator doors open up onto their floor.

“I still don’t hate you,” Kara says, pushing Lena through the hall and laughing when Lena practically falls into a dead weight. So Kara leans down, tucking one hand underneath Lena’s knees, and lifts her into the air. “When did you drink so much?”

“After I got tired of listening to those three businessman talk about how hot they thought you were while you were in the bathroom,” Lena mutters. Kara laughs again, setting Lena down up against the wall next to their door and fumbling the keycard out of her pocket. Lena watches her, her eyes dark and clearly glazed over by alcohol.

“You should hear what people say about you,” Kara says. “Sometimes superhearing is the worst.”

“I’m sure they talk about how my family personally crushed their dreams or something,” Lena says, as Kara pulls her into their hotel room. She straightens up all of a sudden, her eyes attaching to Kara’s eyes and staring at her. “You know, I’ve never been drunk with you before.”

“I heard someone at the gala say they’d let you step on their throat,” Kara says, shrugging. “I think in a sexual way? It seemed sexual.”

“I’m not really into that,” Lena offers, and Kara laughs again.

“And _then,_ when we went to that club opening that you got invited to, I heard a girl say - and I quote, _I’d definitely do bad things to her_. And they did not mean it in a supervillainy way.”

“I’m more into that,” Lena says, dropping onto the bed and stretching into a spread eagle position. “Kara. I’ve never been this drunk in front of anyone ever. Except maybe Jack, that one time.”

Kara watches as Lena blinks her eyes closed and groans. She can’t help but smile. Seeing Lena this uncomposed is fun and maybe - the littlest bit sad. So she drops onto the bed next to Lena and reaches for her head again, running her fingertips across her forehead. It’s quiet and calm and Kara for once isn’t listening to the outside world, just focusing on the lulling beat of Lena’s heart and the leveling out of her breath.

  
“Just don’t hate me,” Lena whispers, clearly nearly asleep. “I need you.”

“I’m here,” Kara whispers back, and she lets Lena fall asleep before she gets up to turn out the lights.

-

The first gas station they come across the next morning has an enormous statue of a wagon-riding family outside of it. It’s covered in bright red paint, and it’s the sort of thing that mesmerizes Kara about humans. Lena seems like she could not care less, sliding out of the car and slowly making her way into the station. Kara follows her in.

“Find me sunglasses,” Lena mutters, and Kara dutifully looks around the store until she spots a rack of them. She takes Lena by the elbow and tugs her over, and the look of relief that passes over Lena when she slips on the pair of knockoff aviators makes Kara snort with laughter.

“You feeling okay, sunshine?” Kara asks, eyeing her own reflection in the shiny lenses of the sunglasses. It’s unfair, but Lena looks gorgeous for someone who had nearly murdered Kara when their alarm went off this morning.

“I hate you,” Lena whispers back. Kara laughs then, grabbing ahold of Lena and wrapping her in a hug that’s eventually returned.

“Let’s get you some water,” Kara says, and Lena sighs heavily as Kara shuffles her over to the refrigerators.

- 

They make it twenty minutes south before Lena makes Kara pull the car over to throw up on the side of the road. It’s kind of funny, in the way that people are after drinking too much, and for some reason, it strikes Kara as especially funny to see Lena Luthor, multibillionaire, throwing up five scotches and an order of breadsticks on the side of some random road in Oklahoma.

When Lena turns around and glares at her, her dark eyes peeking out from under the rim of the purple hat Kara had picked out for her in the gift shop of the hotel, Kara laughs even more.

“I’m revoking our friendship,” Lena mutters, standing up and taking the mouthwash bottle Kara is holding. “It’s over.”

As she swishes around the mouthwash, Kara laughs harder and harder, and she feels like the sun, breaking free from a storm of clouds. Lena spits out the mouthwash and shoves at her, and Kara laughs even harder and Lena shoves again, then grabs at Kara’s sweatshirt.

“Stop laughing,” Lena says, and her breath is a strange mix of acidic and minty fresh and Kara can’t stop, now. “Are you having a mental breakdown?”

When Lena shoves at her again, Kara pulls Lena down onto the ground with her.

-

They stop at another Cracker Barrel a few miles into Texas. It’s hot and Kara’s abandoned her sweatshirt, and Lena trounces her at checkers four times in a row out on the porch while they wait for a table to open up. Lena’s pale skin is gleaming in the bright sun, even as the porch allows some shade, and Kara can’t help but watch it as Lena blasts through her side of the board in one move.

“How badly does your brother’s head burn in the sun?” Kara asks, and the question startles Lena so much that she bursts into a round of laughter that rocks her chair back and forth. Even with the purple hat and the terrible camo shirt Lena’s wearing, she still looks gorgeous. It’s unfair.

“Oh, it’s horrifying,” Lena says, shrugging. “On my twenty-first, he was already shaving his head - we went to the Maldives on our yacht and he lost about fourteen layers of skin.”

“Did you get as drunk as you were last night?” Kara asks, and Lena rolls her eyes, before they fasten to Kara’s hand as she moves her red piece across the board.

“No,” Lena says. “Luthors sip scotch for their twenty-first birthdays.”

“Scotch smells a lot like cleaning solution,” Kara says, quite cheerfully. Lena glares at her and returns a move that takes four pieces with it.

“Thank you for taking care of me,” Lena says. “I don’t quite remember getting back upstairs.”

“Oh, well, you’re missing a ton,” Kara says. “I told you all about how I’ve heard people’s sexual fantasies about you.”

“Ah, yes, the ones where I’m a whip-wielding villainess?” Lena asks, and Kara laughs, shrugging her shoulders. Lena looks up from the board and smiles at Kara, widely and brightly, and if they weren’t on the run from her murderous brother, this would almost feel - normal. Truly normal, the kind of normal Kara had been chasing her whole life on Earth. Just a road trip across the country with one of the people you love most in life.  


“Oh yeah,” Kara says. “Lots of leather. High heels. I don’t know, one time I tried to watch a Netflix documentary about dominatrixes and I had to stop, I got so embarrassed.” 

“You clearly haven’t stumbled onto the masses of people who lose their minds on sight of Supergirl’s biceps,” Lena says. Kara blinks, her mouth dropping open, before she leans forward, across the table between them.

“People _what_?” Kara asks.

  
“People want to have sex with Supergirl,” Lena says flatly, her eyebrow raising. “The suit and boots does something akin to the leather and high heels. I’m sure you’ve probably apprehended some criminals who seem to love getting tossed around a little too much.”

Kara thinks backwards through her career, picks out a few instances where the bad guys had seemed a little too excited or unsurprised to see her, and makes a face.

“Gross,” Kara says.

“You know, I always thought you’d be a bit of a prude talking about sex,” Lena says, smiling gently. Kara scoffs, crossing her arms and leaning back in her rocking chair as Lena places her arms on the table.

“Well, on Kr - back home, sex only happened with your - you know, spouse,” Kara says. “The Daxamites were the floozies of our sector.”

“Still, though,” Lena says. “You tried to watch a documentary about dominatrixes.”

“It was an intellectual exercise!” Kara says, watching as Lena advances even further across the table.

“Or maybe you were curious,” Lena suggests. Kara watches her eyes for a second, tries to tamp down the fluttery feeling in her chest, the one that always makes her feel so flustered when Lena smirks, and then she zones in on the sound of Lena’s heartbeat. It’s pumping away, quick and flitting, and it centers Kara. She smirks back, and the heartbeat does something extraordinary. 

“You never know. Maybe I was looking for suggestions,” Kara says, then cocks her head as the full effect of losing an upper hand washes over Lena’s face. “Come on, you nerd, our table’s ready.”

-

“How many bowls of grits do you intend to eat?” Lena asks, watching Kara shove more food in her mouth. “This is disgusting." 

“What’s disgusting is that you’re using our precious Mad Libs book to decode a bunch of letters,” Kara says, nodding down at the open book Lena’s been using to decipher some of Lex’s communications. It’s meant to blend them in, but she also had been hoping to actually run through some of the superhero Mad Libs.

“I’m just trying to stop a genocidal mad man,” Lena says. “But by all means, give me an adjective.”

“Beautiful,” Kara says, around a mouthful of grits. “You’re still decoding.” 

“I have a very good mnemonic memory,” Lena says. “Noun?”

“Pencil,” Kara says, watching Lena’s fingers wrapped around the pencil with the giant eraser on top.

“Person in room?”

“You,” Kara says. Lena smiles softly, her fingers rewrapping around the pencil as she adjusts her grip.

“Noun,” she says.

“Smile,” Kara says.

“Verb.”

“Smile.”

“I don’t know how this works, but I doubt that’s allowed. Noun?”

“Woman.”

“Adjective?”

“Smart. No - genius.”

“Plural noun?”

“Flowers." 

“Number.”

“What’s your favorite number? Our first night, the man at the motel asked if I had a lucky number before he gave me our room key.”

“That sounds lecherous,” Lena says, and Kara shrugs.

“Oh, it was,” she says. “But what’s your favorite? For future reference." 

“Seventeen.”

“Cool. Seventeen.”

“Part of the body?”

Kara makes a humming noise, her eyes drifting down Lena’s body in an obvious way, prompting a snort of laughter from the woman across from her. 

“You know, it’s a little more invasive knowing you have x-ray vision,” Lena says.

“Heart.”

“Plural noun?”

“Homes.”

“And, last, but not least - place?”

“Cracker Barrel.”

“Okay - are you ready for this work of great literature?”

At Kara’s nod, Lena clears her throat and drops her pencil to read.

“As an alarm began to sound, Supergirl flew at beautiful speed to discover her pencil, Livewire, running away from Lena’s Jewelry Store. But just as the Smile of Steel was about to subdue Livewire, another alarm started to smile. This time, it was caused by Red Tornado, robbing a woman across the street! _This calls for some genius thinking!_ Supergirl said to herself. She thought a moment and then started to run back and forth between the two flowers so fast it looked like there were seventeen Supergirls. Faster than the heart could see, Supergirl disarmed the homes just as the police arrived to car the criminals away to Cracker Barrel.”

“Like Livewire deserves Cracker Barrel,” Kara says, finishing her fourth bowl of grits and watching as Lena picks up her pencil again.

“By the way, I think I’ve solved this section of code. I think he’s somewhere in Midway City.”

“Rao, you really are a genius.”

-

“Do you think we’re making a mistake? Going after him?” Lena asks. She’s leaned all the way back against the hot brick of the bar they’ve stopped at for the night, back in Oklahoma. Her dark hair is pulled back, and she’s watching Kara with lazy eyes, lulled by the shots of whisky some drunk boys had sent their way. 

“I think Alex would call it the dumbest thing I’ve ever done,” Kara says, pulling the paper of the label off her beer and half-listening as the boys chatter on about which one of the two of them they’d sleep with first. “But no.”

“He’ll try to kill you,” Lena whispers, leaning forward across their tiny table and grabbing for Kara’s forearm. “I don’t want to be the reason you get killed. You know, I - when I didn’t know about - you know. When I didn’t know, I worried that you’d wake up one day and realize I was a Luthor - and my life was never going to be normal. That you’d get tired of having to come to my office during my newest crisis.”

Kara hums, feeling Lena’s heartbeat underneath her thin, pale skin, pressing up against the muscle of her forearm. Her hand is sweaty, affected by heat and alcohol, and the ends of her hair are starting to curl, and the boys are starting to take bets on who approaches those two hot girls first. 

“My whole life I wanted a normal life,” Kara says back. “But I don’t know. Do you ever think - have you thought, over the past few days - that this is the most normal your life’s ever felt?”

Lena blinks, her head bumping up against the brick again as she waits for Kara to continue.

“And I don’t think that’s a like - I don’t think it’s because we’re on this trip and it’s like, a normal experience, to go on a road trip across America. I don’t think it’s because I don’t have to worry about work or - other work. Because I am worried about work and other work. And this isn’t a normal road trip.”

Lena’s hand slips down Kara’s forearm, pinning Kara’s pulse against her own in what seems an almost unconscious movement. 

“I think it must just be you. You help me feel normal. So, no, I’m probably not ever going to get tired of being around you.”

Lena blinks, and just as one of the drunk boys stumbles out of his chair, intent on chatting one of them up, Lena grips tight at Kara’s wrist.

“Let’s get out of here.”

-

“Hey, weird question,” Kara says, in the middle of sorting out the money for the motel room. “Is room seventeen open?”

“Everyone’s got a lucky number, kid,” the man says, his grin wide and yellow. “And it is. It’s a California king, though - you good with that?”

Kara thinks for a moment, her skin still hot and warm where Lena had just been grasping her hand before she clambered out of the car. Then she nods.

-

Lena doesn’t blink when she sees the one bed. Her heartbeat is hammering, and somehow, it’s all piecing together around that sound, like that sweet feeling of magnets getting drawn together across a short distance, that satisfying feeling of pull resounding in a _click._

Kara gets in the shower, leaving Lena to settle in the room, and when she comes out with a towel wrapped around her, the news is on.

“More news from National City: last night, a government office building downtown was evacuated prior to an explosion. Lex Luthor claimed ownership of the attack, referring to it as another a call for Supergirl to reappear, with his sister. Government officials have indicated that they are unsure of the whereabouts of the Girl of Steel or Miss Luthor. Cat Grant issued another video response, assuring the public that the government was doing all it could to apprehend Mr. Luthor and that no superhero was needed.”

Lena’s eyes aren’t on the television, but on Kara. The scratchy towels the hotel had provided were small and thin, worn through repeated use and misuse. Something is breaking open in the air between them, and Kara feels - hot, all over, buzzy, the way she does just before a fight breaks out. Like there’s something that needs punching and isn’t receiving it.

“You think those government officials would be surprised to learn we’re together in a motel in Oklahoma?” Lena asks, her voice quiet and lilting. 

“Phrased that way? Maybe,” Kara says, a grin making its way across her face as Lena flips the television off, setting the remote on the bedside table without looking away from Kara.

“I’m a Luthor,” Lena says, her face growing solemn as she stares. “You know that, right?”

“Lena,” Kara says. “I’m Supergirl.”

They blink at each other for a few moments, before Kara steps a little closer, one knee coming up to rest on the edge of the bed, her hand clasping the top of the towel. Lena’s eyes are roving, but they eventually come back to Kara’s. 

“I sincerely hope my brother hasn’t developed some sort of ultrasonic listening technology,” Lena says. “Or else his goons will be here in no time.”

“Well, we can pass the time until they get here,” Kara says. Lena’s eyes drop down to the stretch of skin resting on the edge of the bed, from knee to mid-thigh.

  
“You know,” Lena says, and her heartbeat gets somehow faster, heavier, clunking in the air between them as she reaches one hand out, coming closer and closer to Kara’s leg before it makes a thunderous contact. “This is the exact amount of skin between your suit and boots.”

“I’ve heard that it does something for some people,” Kara says, and Lena looks caught in it, her eyes hovering on the skin and back up to Kara’s eyes.

Lena drops her hand, shuffling up until she’s matching Kara in height, on her knees, her hands coming to tug at Kara’s shoulders, looping around them as they look each other in the eye.

“You make me feel normal too,” Lena says. “All I’ve ever wanted was a normal life, too.”

Kara kisses her.

-

“How long has this been here?” Kara says, somewhere halfway down Lena’s neck, just before sucking on the skin there. “How long could we have been doing this?”

“Well, I don’t know, this beautiful woman wandered into my office to bother me about how I was supposed to have been blown up,” Lena says, her voice hitching in the middle, her hand stretching down Kara’s back and digging in.

“Have you always been such a smooth talker?” Kara mutters, dragging her lips away from Lena’s neck and coming back to her lips, pressing a warm, hot, slippery kiss there. It’s returned in earnest, Lena’s hands straying up and down Kara’s bare back.

“Well, I tried to be,” Lena breathes back. “You didn’t notice.”

“I assume you lost your mind when you saw Supergirl’s biceps up close and personal too,” Kara says. Her own hand sneaks between them, slipping up under Lena’s bra and finding a hard nipple waiting there for her to thumb. Lena gasps, her neck doing something amazing underneath Kara’s ministrations.

“I’m thrilled to learn you’re one in the same, if that’s what you’re asking,” Lena says. “Can you - just take off my bra, please?”

“Is this the only bra you have?” Kara asks, plucking a little at the nipple between her fingers. Lena’s hips jump a little, crashing against Kara’s, and the room gets a degree warmer.

“Yes,” Lena says. “Why?”

  
“Well, I’m not going to rip it off you if it’s the only one you have,” Kara says, rolling them over until Lena’s on top, pulling open the snap of the bra and letting Lena shrug it off her shoulders with a shiver.

“When we get back home, and I have access to my full lingerie drawer, feel free,” Lena says, just as Kara sits up and crashes their lips back together. Lena’s tongue peeks into Kara’s mouth somewhere in the middle, and it feels - like she’s lost her head, somewhere, but she’s doing just fine. Her hands play with the waistband of Lena’s jeans, scratching so nicely against her bare skin.

“I’m getting the vibe that you aren’t a whip-wielding dominatrix,” Kara jokes, plucking at the button on Lena’s jeans and listening to the jackhammering sounds of Lena’s heart when she drops her head to Lena’s nipple and sucks. The noise that draws out of Lena’s chest right then and there is almost singularly life-changing and precious. She hopes to Rao himself that it’s true Lex hasn’t developed ultrasonic hearing technology, because she’ll have to destroy the tapes herself.

“Shut up and fuck me, Kara,” Lena says, breathily, and she laughs, just the tiniest amount, and Kara laughs too, because - well, maybe they’ve waited long enough.

-

“You’re so gorgeous,” Kara whispers, pressing a kiss into Lena’s bare hip bone and thumbing at the bone there. Lena’s eyes open up, and she tilts her head a little to look Kara in the eye. They’re so dark, rumbling with this moment, and Kara can’t help it. She bites at the skin on Lena’s hip, earning a sharp jerk.

  
“So are you,” Lena breathes out, then sighs when Kara kisses her skin again, hovering over the skin. Her eyes fall closed, her hand clenching with Kara’s on her stomach. “Would it be weird to say I’m so happy right now?” 

“No,” Kara says, dropping her mouth closer to Lena’s center and letting out a little freeze breath that makes Lena make a high-pitched whining noise. “I am too. But I think you might be happier if you give me a minute or two.”

“I guess I’ve got time,” Lena says, a laugh escaping her chest right before Kara dives in.

-

“So what’s our plan?” Kara asks. It’s morning, and Lena’s lying face down on the bed, her back exposed underneath the sheets. Kara’s tracing around the skin there, listening to Lena make various humming noises as she adjusts to consciousness.

“I’m starting to reconsider,” Lena says, and it’s muffled by the pillow she has her head buried in. Kara leans down to press a kiss to her shoulder. “Maybe we should let your sister take care of it. And we can just do this.”

“As long as you don’t put on a shirt ever again,” Kara says, thumbing down Lena’s spine and listening as her heartbeat lists calmly under her ministrations.

“If he’s in Midway City, we can be there in two or three days,” Lena says. “I have to decode more of the messaging to see if he knows where we are, and then figure out exactly where he is in the city.”

“How can I help?” Kara asks. Lena hums, rolling over, her eyes opening slowly in the low light of their motel room.

“You’re doing good so far,” Lena says, and Kara grins as Lena leans up for another kiss.

-

“You said you don’t love being in cars,” Lena says, in the middle of Missouri. “A couple days ago. Why?”

“I’m just a little claustrophobic,” Kara says, after a moment of watching the road. When she glances over at Lena, she’s hunched forward, her hands moving quickly through the data on the tablet and the symbols she’s translating on their Mad Libs page. “When I first landed on Earth, I woke up and panicked in my pod.”

“It’s odd to know that Supergirl has normal fears,” Lena says. Kara cracks her neck, trying to figure where Lena is tracing her thoughts from. “I mean - it’s funny. So much makes sense now. Why you don’t like the texture of some magazines, why you never tell me to talk louder.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Kara says. Lena sits up a little, looking at Kara in confusion, before she reaches out for her hand on the gear shift and threads their fingers together. 

“That’s not what I’m saying. I liked those things about you. I still do. You’re still my - ” she stops herself, then shakes her head, laughing a little. “I liked Kara Danvers and I liked Supergirl and I especially like seeing both of them at the same time in Kara Zor-El.”

Kara blinks, then pulls the car over. Before Lena can ask why, Kara’s leaning over the console to press a kiss to Lena’s mouth. And there’s only that for a few moments, just Lena’s breath getting caught up in a gasp, and Kara smiling and her hand on Lena’s thigh.

“You really are a smooth talker,” Kara whispers, her lips still brushing against Lena’s. Lena laughs, her hands caught in Kara’s hair and pressing in tightly.

“Thank you for finally noticing,” Lena says, and Kara kisses her again.

- 

“I’m a little claustrophobic, too,” Lena offers, an hour or so later, in yet another Cracker Barrel. Kara’s eating her second chicken fried steak, and Lena is eating a salad. Their feet are locked together under the table. “And I’m afraid of heights. I’m great on international flights.”

“I’d go with you anyway,” Kara says, shrugging, around a mouthful of food. Lena stares at her, a small curl of disgust at her mouth.

“Have you always been so...nice?” Lena asks. “I’ve wondered this a lot.”

“Alex would call it me being naive,” Kara says, swallowing her food. “She says I trust too easily.”

“Does she say that about me?”

“She used to,” Kara says. “But she trusted you enough to go with me on the run. That means something.”

“She loves you,” Lena says. Kara hums, smiling and reaching for the triangle game on the table, starting to move the pegs around. “What did your parents do? You said your mother was sort of a lawyer, once.”

“She was a judicator,” Kara says. “Sort of a mix between a judge and lawyer. She sentenced people to Fort Rozz in the Phantom Zone.”

“You’ve met my mother,” Lena says. Kara snorts, finishing up the game with a win and resetting the board while Lena directs her eyes to the Mad Libs and the decoding. “She’s a doctor who apparently has a propensity for creating supervillains.”

“What about - do you remember your birth mother?” Kara asks. Lena pauses, looking back up at Kara. She’s stolen Kara’s Arizona hat, and the bright pink of it contrasts with the cobalt-green of her eyes.

“No,” Lena says, eventually. “I’m not sure if that’s for the better or the worse.”

“And your father?” Kara asks. Lena nods, tilting her head to the side and looking down at the paper in front of her.

“I need to tell you something,” Lena says, in way of response. Her heart picks up speed, and Kara drops the pegs in her hand to grab for Lena’s unoccupied one. When Lena’s eyes reconnect with hers, Kara nods, urging her to continue. “My father taught Lex and I this code. The one that Lex is using.”

Kara stares down at the pages of notes Lena’s accumulated.

“I think he wants me to come after him,” Lena says. “I think he’s expecting it.”

-

“Kara, we should talk about this,” Lena says, right in Kara’s ear, as they’re waiting for the motel’s front desk lady to come back from wherever she’s wandered off to. They’ve been standing in the lobby for five whole minutes. 

“If you’re going, I’m going,” Kara says. Lena grabs at her wrist, trying to get Kara to look at her.

“What if it’s a trap?” Lena asks.

“Then it’s a trap for you, too,” Kara says.

“I won’t be the reason you get hurt, Kara,” Lena says insistently, her hand closing tight around Kara’s wrist. 

“I promised you that I would protect you,” Kara says, looking at Lena. “I’m going to do that. And we’re going to stop your brother. And we’re going to - break into a motel room if I have to wait five more minutes for this lady to come back.”

“Kara, listen to me - ” Lena starts to say, and Kara sighs, spinning so that she’s facing Lena, their bodies close together and Lena’s heart beating fast, but from fear - not from anything else.

“Lena, I want to go home,” Kara says. “I want to go home and stay in bed with you for a week and I want to go on dates where we can wear normal clothes and I want to fix my city and hang out with my friends and my sister. I’m not going to let you go try to take down your brother alone, even if it is a trap. I’ve flown into more dangerous situations for you before, and I’ll do it over and over again." 

Lena blinks at her, and the front desk lady ambles into the lobby just then. 

“Oh, have you been waiting long?” she asks, and she hurries behind the counter. “What do you two ladies need for the night?”

“Is room seventeen open?” Kara asks, coming closer to the counter and feeling Lena thread their fingers together. The lady leans down to look at the book in front of her, and she smiles happily when she tilts her head back up to look at them. 

“It sure is. Lucky number?” she asks, grabbing for the room key. “Oh, is it okay if it’s a Queen? You two seem like good friends, but it’s always better to check.”

“We are,” Lena says, her fingers tightening around Kara’s. “That’ll be perfectly fine.” 

-

“Do you remember your language? Kryptonian - is that how you would say it?” Lena whispers in Kara’s ear, her fingers doing something downright magical lower down Kara’s body. Kara can barely think through the haze of feeling rushing through her, but she has enough sense left to nod, quite vigorously.

“Say something,” Lena says, and she punctuates her statement by slip-sliding her thumb at Kara’s clit.

“ _Rao,_ ” Kara says, the Kryptonian syllables stumbling out of her mouth as she tries to control her hips. “ _I love this._ ”

“I feel like I shouldn’t find that so attractive,” Lena mutters, before she’s biting on Kara’s earlobe and circling around and around and around on Kara’s clit and Kara nearly falls apart right then and there. A noise that’s probably too loud climbs out of her throat, a whispery whine that sounds wanton and desperate. 

“God, I love this,” Lena says, unintentionally reflecting what Kara’s just said. “I want to go home and lie in bed and do this for a week.”

Kara comes hard enough that she sees stars.

-

“He’s in a warehouse on the south side of the city,” Lena says. She’s sitting mostly in Kara’s lap, flipping through the pages of the Mad Libs book and glancing at the table, where the tablet is laid out. Kara had sat down in the arm chair to eat her fourth serving of breakfast when Lena had seen fit to vacate her space on the bed and sit in her lap.

“When we get closer, I’ll be able to see the layout,” Kara says. Lena presses a kiss to her forehead that makes her smile. “Do we want to - drive up there and wait a day? Or are we doing this today?”

“Today,” Lena suggests. Her eyes are on the television on mute in their room, where images of the last few days are playing out from National City. Kara wraps an arm around Lena’s waist and hooks a finger through the belt loop of her jeans. “I have to take a pretty girl on a date when I get home.”

-

“There are guards,” Kara says, eyeing the warehouse from the balcony of their hotel room. “A lot of them, but they’re clustered together in one room. They don’t look like they’re expecting any company.”

“Lex is expecting us,” Lena says, adjusting the all-black outfit she had picked out at the store an hour ago. “Plus, I’m going to offer myself up, right? He doesn’t need attentive guards.”

“It’s more fun to punch them when they’re attentive,” Kara says. Lena laughs a little, grabbing for Kara’s sweatshirt and pulling her in for a kiss. It lasts perhaps longer than it should, considering they’re about to launch an assault on Lex Luthor’s secret hideout. But it’s warm and it makes Kara feel solidly attached to the earth, and Lena smiles gently into the kiss.

“Promise you’ll stay safe?” Lena whispers, as the kiss ends. “You aren’t allowed to leave me.”

“Especially now that you know how good I am at sex, I’m assuming,” Kara jokes, and Lena rolls her eyes, and they kiss some more after that.

-

Kara bursts through the roof of the warehouse, landing on the table at the center of the room where the guards are clustered, right as she hears Lena’s heartbeat hit an amazingly quick rate and Lex Luthor’s voice ring out, “ _Lena! Finally.”_

She makes quick work of them. They groan and yell and scream, and she’s almost made it through the door and into the hall where Lex and Lena are ensconced when she gets blasted sideways and onto the ground. 

“You _idiots,_ ” a familiar voice says from behind a black mask, and Kara has half a smile on her face when Alex smacks her on the head. “What part of lay low until we’ve got this figured out lead to this?”

“It was Lena’s idea,” Kara returns, scrambling off the ground and wrapping her sister in a hug. The strike team behind her all wave and grunt in acknowledgment, and she’s surprised she didn’t hear them approaching, but somewhere in the middle of the punching and listening to Lex monologue at Lena, she hadn’t had the chance.

“It’s good to know you both have suicide complexes, I guess,” Alex says, then cocks her head at the squad behind her. They scramble further down the hallway, setting up in preplanned positions, waiting for some sort of signal.

“Alex, what’s the delay?” a voice crackles in Alex’s headset, and Alex rolls her eyes as she presses on her talk button.

  
“Our two fugitives apparently had their own apprehension plan,” Alex says. “I’m formulating a new strategy.”

“Double whammy?” Kara suggests. Alex rolls her eyes again, and Kara’s concerned they’ll get stuck in her head like Eliza always insisted they would. But she nods, and Kara runs down to the opposite end of the hallway, and when they both blast through the walls at the same time on different ends of the room, Kara gets one glance at an in-the-flesh Lex Luthor - his eyes jumping between the mass of DEO officers and Supergirl - before his sister reaches out and tags him with a rejiggered taser that has him on the ground and twitching in seconds.

Lena lets out a sigh as the DEO agents and Alex rush forward, wrapping Lex’s wrists in handcuffs and lifting him off the ground. For one moment, Lena’s standing in a dim warehouse, all alone, wearing a ridiculous all-black stealth outfit that they had purchased three hours ago at a Target. And it’s all over, the relief washing through Kara - they can go home.

Kara steps forward, heading over to Lena and pulling her into her arms. Lena laughs into her shoulder, and when Kara presses a kiss against her temple, Kara can hear the skip in her heart beat.

“I didn’t leave you,” Kara says, fingering Lena’s ribs as she grips at the woman in her arms. “See? Didn’t even break a sweat.”

“As long as you still won’t,” Lena whispers, and it’s almost sad, aching, and Kara can’t help but frown. The question is implicit, and Kara hadn’t even considered it before it was posed: what if this is all subject to circumstance? What if they go home and all of a sudden, they don’t work as well as they had out here?

Kara kisses Lena’s temple again.

“I’m here,” she says, and she hugs Lena a little tighter when she feels her breath shudder and a smile break across her face.

-

In the airlift, half-listening to Alex berate her for her myriad of bad choices - they include wearing neon colored clothes, theft, hacking, and deciding to go after Lex on their own - Kara knocks her knee into Lena’s and smiles when Lena looks at her. She keeps her leg there as they lift off and head home.

-

Kara’s running late. Cat had corralled her in her office for a full twenty minute lecture on how she had disappeared for the past week and a half, and how it was irresponsible and she was clearly avoiding her responsibilities as a reporter. Cat hadn’t seen to firing her, but it had felt adjacent to it, and now - now she was running late.

“In an address today, Lena Luthor committed twenty million dollars in aid to the business and people affected by her brother’s attacks on National City. She claimed she was in government custody for the duration of his siege, along with Supergirl, who was seen early this morning helping the rebuilding effort at L Corp’s headquarters.”

The little television in the cab cuts to an ad just after that, and she’s late because she had decided, against her better judgment, to show up to the restaurant like a normal human being, knowing there’d be people watching and skulking and if she just walked out of an alley, it might draw some confused glances.

When she bursts into the door, the hostess looks at her with a smile, and Kara fiddles with her glasses while she gets led to the table tucked away in the back of the restaurant. And there’s Lena, still in her work clothes, a blazer and a skirt and infinitely better looking than when she had a garish hat and sweatshirt.

Kara smiles and so does Lena and when she sits down, she feels calm seep into her, even despite today’s insanity, and she starts to feel just the littlest bit normal.


End file.
